if they accumulate over a period of time this could affect our well-being
this could result in more serious stress reactions such as anxiety or depression
research into it
Bouteyre et al (2007) - investigated
reltationship between daily hassles and
mental health of students during transition period from school to uni
1st year psychology students at French uni completed hassles part of the HSUP and the Beck
Depression Inventory as a measure of any symptoms of depression that might be attributable
to the hassles of transition
found that 41% of students studied suffered depressive symptoms and was a positive
correlation between scores on the hassle scale and the incidence of depressive symptoms
study shows that transition is frequently fraught with daily hassles and that these can be
considered a significant risk factor for depression
The Hassles and Uplifts scale (HSUP) (Delongis et al 1982) measures the
respondents' attitudes towards daily situations - instead of focusing on the
more highly stressful life events the HSUP provides a way of evaluating
postitive and negative events that occur in each person's daily life
they claim that rather than major life changes, it is day-to-day hassels or
small uplifts that determine our overall levels of stress
Uplifts
positive events that occur in the course of the day
they can counteract the negative effects of hassles and help lower
stress levels, improve our performance and self esteem
Gervais (2005)
asked nurses to keep diaries for a month, recording all
hassles at work & asked to rate their own performance
over same period
at end of month - clear that daily hassles were found to
increase job strain and decrease job performance
nurses felt that some of the uplifts (e.g. compliment from a patient)
counteracted negative effects of daily hassles
as well as overcoming the stress associated with their daily hassles -
uplifts also improved their performance of the job
Daily hassles Vs life changes
daily hassles broadly accepted as comparable to
life changes as a significant source of stress
in an Australian study (Ruffin 1993) daily hassles linked to
greater psychological and physical dysfuntion than major
negative life events
evaluation
a number of studies (e.g Ruffin 1993) have shown that daily
hassles provide a more significant source of stress for most
people than major life events
explantion of this: an accumulation of minor daily stressors
creates persistant irritations, fustrations and overloads which
then result in more serious stress reactions such as anxiety
and depression (Lazarus 1999)
most of the data from research on daily hassles is correlational -
means we cannot draw causal conclusions about the realtionship
between daily hassles and well-being
individual differences: gender
e.g. Miller et al (1992) found pets for females were
commonly associated with uplifts
for males they were more likely to be seen as
hassles e.g. time and money